First things first

First I check few basic things:

• Metadata is ok? title, description, H1-H3, keywords?
  
• Site is indexed?
• Site is not blocked?

Then I start to measure. If You don't measure, You are not going to get results. Start measuring your website CSI-i (critical success indicators).

CSI-is I use:

• PR - Google Page Rank, read how to measure...
• QVPD - Quality visits per day - visits after bounce rate, read how to measure...
• GBL - Google Backlinks read how to measure...
• YBL - Yahoo backlinks read how to measure...
• MBL - Microsoft Live Search Backlinks read how to measure...

So, main CSI is link popularity in general

Secondary CSI-s, what I also follow, but not so important:

• GIP -Google indexed pages
• YIP - Yahoo indeced pages
• MIP - Microsoft Live indexed pages

When I start new SEO project, lasting 6-12 months or so, I set up spreadsheet to record each month all these CSI-s. Usually compare them with closest competitors.

In the next post I will describe where to get these numbers.